CBB Visit: Louisville vs. Fullerton Super Regional Game 1

For the 2nd straight year I’ve had the privilege of covering the Fullerton Super Regional, and for the first time in those three games the win has gone in favor of the Titans.Daniel Renken improved his record to 11-2 with a complete game shutout of the Louisville Cardinals in a 12-0 victory for Fullerton.

This game was all Fullerton from the get-go.Renken dominated Louisville throughout with only one Cardinals batter reaching 2nd on the double by Wunderlich.Chris Dominguez’s bat was silent, striking out in his first two at-bats and flying out to Josh Felhauer in the top of the 7th.Renken sent down 10 straight before walking Kyle Cheesebrough to open up the 8th inning.Renken gave up only 3 hits, striking out 9.Renken capped off his complete game victory by shutting down Chris Dominguez for a 4th time tonight, and didn’t give up a hit for the final 6.1 innings.

Fullerton at the plate was typical of what they’ve done all season; put up runs in bunches.This was the 16th time this season they have put up 10 runs or more in a game, and the TItans scored at least 2 runs in 4 innings before bringing in the reserves to finish the game.The 4-5-6 batters for the Titans dominated this game, going a combined 9 for 12 with 7 RBI’s, including a blast off the Klondike sign in right by Team USA member Josh Fellhauer, who went 1 for 2.1B Jared Clark and DH Khris Davis both went 4 for 5; Clark with 4 RBI and Davis with 2, each with 3 singles and double.

On the other side, Louisville had its struggles on the mound, hitting 6 batters.The only highlight for Louisville came on a diving catch by Josh Richmond in the bottom of the 7th, but not much else to speak of for Louisville.They only had 3 hits through 7 innings, so they started emptying their bench and looking towards Saturday’s matchup.The Cardinals will have to rely on a great outing from their ace Justin Marks tomorrow to have any shot of keeping their season alive.

I don’t want to jinx them, but the Titans look well on their way to yet another visit in Omaha.

Mark Rafferty is a 2007 Arizona State graduate where he majored in Justice Studies. During his collegiate days, he founded PitchForkNation.com which covers all Sun Devils sports. He joined College Baseball Daily during the 2007 postseason when he covered the Cal-State Fullerton Regional. He has covered multiple NCAA Regionals and the College World Series.You may contact Mark by email at Mark at collegebaseballdaily.com and follow him on Twitter @MarkRaff.